hello in this series of videos I will be working to help you understand basic
scientific concepts that underlie the workings of Earth's climate system if
you are a serious and humble student and you are truly interested in getting a
start on understanding how Earth's global climate system works this video
series might be very helpful in this first video I will introduce the concept
of Earth's radiation budget perhaps the most basic concept to understand is the
idea that the earth is physical object that at the large-scale continuously
gains and losses energy in the form of radiation so we need to understand that
the earth is this great ball that is in orbit around the Sun and it gains energy
by being in the past energy radiation is coming from the Sun so it's gaining
energy we need to understand that it's a plan in orbit around the Sun it's
getting energy from the Sun and that amount of energy which is coming from
the Sun number actually approximately 1,368 wats every square metres of
surface area that's exposed to the Sun and the radiation falling on the earth
is either reflected or absorbed talk about this in more detail in a upcoming
slide but that portion of the incoming solar radiation which is reflected makes
no contribution to
I won't say it's unimportant but it's not important with respect to warming up
the planet that radiation which is absorbed contributes to warming and
causes the earth to develop some temperature but the earth stays in
energy balance so it's receiving energy the energy from the Sun that is absorbed
but then it also loses energy by giving off its own emissions and over time the
matter energy that's coming from the Sun that portion of solar energy fun in the
earth which is absorbed is equal to the energy that the earth gives on the grand
scale in the long run
energy in is equal to energy out this is called earth radiation budget